A blog written by someone who enjoys reading mystery novels and other books.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

THE GHOST WALKER by Margaret Coel

Publisher's Weekly called Margaret Coel's The Ghost Walker "well-crafted." That's a perfect description of the story.

Father John O'Malley's beat-up pickup breaks down in a blizzard. O'Malley is the resident priest on the Wyoming Arapaho reservation. Walking to seek help, O'Malley finds a body in a ditch, but by the time someone takes him to the nearest repair shop and he calls the sheriff, the body has disappeared.

All this leads to a series of murders and discoveries. The discoveries lead to a web of people on the res itself. And finally, that leads to O'Malley learning of an outsider plot to buy the land on which the mission sits, to build a recreation center on it, and then to
convert that recreation center into a casino.

Along the way, O'Malley makes a crucial mistake which leads directly to the murder of one couple in the story.

This book shows what seems to me to be Coel's strong knowledge of Arapaho religion and culture.

O'Malley teams with Vicky Holden, a local Arapaho lawyer. Both Father John and Vicky are dealing with their demons, and those demons include the problems of Vicky's daughter.

All in all, this was the perfect audio-book to listen to as I was struggling to overcome a stubborn virus.

Using its electronic services on the web, I checked this book out from our local library.
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Joe Barone's Blog

All the books I write about here are books I've either bought or borrowed from a library. This blog is a record of my weekly reading.
I don't accept ARCs for review, though I appreciate those who do because their blogs clue me in to new books.
I sometimes write about non-fiction books or non-mystery fiction books because I stumbled onto them and they interested me.